Resources

 

Studies:

Acupuncture is effective for treating chronic pain.

A recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicinereveals shows acupuncture being more effective for chronic pain than “sham acupuncture,” which is a placebo version of acupuncture. The study included almost 18,000 individuals and studied the effect of acupuncture on chronic osteoarthritis, back, headaches and shoulder pain. “ The scientists concluded that the results of the analysis demonstrated that the specific effect of needling at true acupuncture points was statistically superior to sham needling. The authors also concluded that acupuncture was an effective and reasonable treatment option for the conditions evaluated.”
http://www.nccaom.org/uncategorized/new-study-shows-acupuncture-effective-for-chronic-pain-2

Neck Pain:

Acupuncture was shown effective in the treatment of chronic neck pain.

In a 2004 study, 68% of the individuals that completed the study reported improvements (pain reduction) of over 50%. There was a 85% reduction in pain when the neck pain was present less than 3 months and a 78% reduction when the pain was present less than 6 months.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15551941

Headaches:

The researchers at Duke University have reported that acupuncture is more effective at treating chronic headaches than medication. They did an exhaustive search and found that acupuncture is extremely effective at reducing the severity and frequency of chronic headaches.
http://www.dukehealth.org/health_library/news/acupuncture_offers_headache_relief_over_medication

Back Pain:

There a number of studies that shows the effectiveness of acupuncture for the treatment of chronic and acute low back pain. In one such study, published in the Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain, it concluded that acupuncture has a “beneficial and persistent effectiveness against chronic low back pain.” In another study, it showed that acupuncture could be highly effective for the treatment of acute low back. This study also looked at the effect of certain medications and concluded that acupuncture was more effective than the medication used in the study.
http://www.healthcmi.com/acupuncturist-news-online/557-acupunctureceuslowerbackpainli4
http://www.acupuncture.edu/2013/06/18/study-acupuncture-for-acute-low-back-pain-more-effective-than-drugs/

Joint Pain:

Long-term study shows the benefits of acupuncture for shoulder pain.

The participants had treatment 2x a week for eight weeks and then were asked to follow up after 6 months. After 6 months the acupuncture group had continued significant improvement compared to the control group. The researchers concluded that acupuncture is an effective long-term treatment for shoulder pain.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15561384